Venus Williams 0-13 in singles this year after losing to rival 28 years younger at Guangzhou Open
GUANGZHOU, China (AP) — Tennis great Venus Williams fell to 0-13 in singles matches this year at age 46 after losing 6-2, 6-2 to teenager Lilli Tagger in the Guangzhou Open first round on Tuesday.
Their 28-year age gap was reportedly a record difference between opponents in a WTA Tour match.
The 18-year-old Austrian Tagger was born in 2008, the year Williams won the last of her seven Grand Slam singles titles at Wimbledon.
Now ranked No. 599, Williams was playing her first singles match for two months since the U.S. Open, where she lost in the first round to Sofia Kenin.
Williams now has lost 16 straight singles matches on tour going back to July last year.
She matched the 53rd-ranked Tagger with each landing 63% of their first serves, though Williams won just 60% of those points and her opponent won all of hers.
Williams created no break-point chances and Tagger took four of the 16 she had.
Kenin also lost her round of 32 match, beaten 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-4 by Kaitlin Quevedo.
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